The Runaway Train of Mandated Reporting

Authors

Katie Louras

Library of Congress Authority File

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79122466.html

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Mandated reporting was broadly enacted in the 1960s with good intentions and in a very different historical context regarding societal knowledge and recognition of child abuse. It has since expanded drastically regarding who must report and what must be reported. In the same sixty years, no research has demonstrated its efficacy. However, research does suggest that mandated reporting creates independent harms concentrated within low-income and minority communities. On top of the potential trauma of an investigation stemming from a report, mandated reporting also serves to isolate families, cutting them off from community support. Mandated reporters are most commonly those in helping professions. They have themselves protested the barriers these laws create to their work. In short, mandated reporting is a practice that does more harm than good.

Four million calls are made annually reporting suspected child neglect and abuse. Those four million calls, representing 7 million children, result in a 3.5% substantiation rate for abuse—the discovery of 240,000 children who are administratively deemed to be victims of abuse. An additional estimated 360,000 are deemed victims of neglect, a nebulous category often conflated with poverty. Meanwhile, another 2.5 million children are unnecessarily subject to intrusive and potentially traumatic child protective services investigations. A main driver of this harmful excess in reporting is statutorily mandated reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect in every state.

No one wants to leave those 240,000 children, or any children, without protection. But a practice that is not proven to effectively help them and that has been shown to harm ten times as many other children, as well as persistently disproportionately negatively impact marginalized communities, defies common sense. Ending mandated reporting while leaving permissive reporting and training for professionals in its place will benefit every stakeholder involved in the system.

DOI

2024

Recommended Citation

Katie Louras, The Runaway Train of Mandated Reporting, 61 San Diego L. Rev. 137 (2024).
Available at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol61/iss1/5